Tire Rack AutoX

Would like to thank Windy City Miata Club for putting on an awesome two day autocross event (July 31 & Aug 01 2010) this past weekend at Tire Rack!  Thanks to Tire Rack for use of the track and facilities as well.

The Cougar, 240sx, and MX-5 (Blue Meany) departed from Zeeland around 6:15 am for the trip to South Bend with dark rainy sky overhead that did not look promising for a day filled with autocrossing.  The drive down consisted of lots of rain and wet roads and the rain continued after arrival at Tire Rack.

Upon arriving at the track I was getting extremely discouraged by poor drive-ability and performance by the Cougar.  The problem was diagnosed and found to be a malfunctioning butterfly actuator for the secondary intake runners.  The spring was not providing tension and caused the secondaries to be 'loose' and remain open at low rpm's and light throttle conditions, causing severely lean a/f ratios.  The problem was quickly fixed yet the AEM wideband still did not inspire confidence as it continued to display a lean engine environment afterward.  I decided I had not come this far for nothing and would race the car regardless.  After flogging the car on the autocross the entire day without any problems I am led to believe that my wideband may be highly inaccurate right now, possibly due to bad wiring or malfunctioning o2 sensor, since the car felt to run very strong and no CEL's were thrown for a lean condition.

1999 Mercury Cougar

1996 Nissan 240sx

2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata

Registration was completed and we walked the course; the weather finally started to clear up as it came time for the driver's meeting.  The event consisted of three run groups of cars and two different sessions.  Cars could take up to 7 runs of the course in session 1 and 8 runs during session 2.  Drivers would work the course on a rotation of Rest/Race/Work; this gave all drivers an opportunity to rest for lunch and have ample time to get prepared for their run group.

I personally had a great time at my first autocross event and was extremely pleased with how the car performed.  I cant wait to get another chance at this and know that I have plenty of areas to improve and can push the Cougar even more.  The event was made even better by the great group of people involved.  Enjoy some of the pictures taken during the event.

A few more pictures after the jump.